Climate Rally - 13 June 2009

The National Climate Emergency Rally was held on Saturday 13 June, with concurrent rallys in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Wollongong.

Eleven year old, India Jilly, made her first public speech to the 5000 people who attended the Melbourne rally. A video is above. A transcript of India's speech is below.  

Hello my name is India Jilly and I am 11 years old.

As a member of the generation that will inherit this earth I have the right to ask why the people in power wont change their ways and start creating a sustainable future for us.

In school we are taught about our environment. We are taught to save water. We are taught that the sun and wind can provide a great source of energy for our homes. We are taught to walk, ride a bike or catch public transport to school. Sometimes I think that our government needs to go back to school and learn these things also.

We do not want a future that sees a more polluted sky, We do not want  a future where we put  pollution into the ground. To me and my friends that just doesn’t make sense.

Our world seems to be out of control.  In many cultures they talk of the earth being “mother earth” and the sky being “father sky” why do we continue to treat them with such little respect.

My great grandmother is constantly telling me to have respect for my elders, why do my elders not respect the biggest elders of them all.

History tells us that ancient cultures protected the earth I think we need to start doing the same.

Our scientists tell us what we need to do to protect our planet from more damage yet the government doesn’t seem to be listening. Why?

It doesn’t seem fair to me that the people that want to do the right thing, the people who want solar, the people who want to live more sustainably are made to pay more than those who want to keep using “black” energy. I think the government should reward people for doing the right thing.

In our house mum sometimes has a star chart on the fridge. If you get 5 stars for doing the right thing then you are rewarded usually with $2. I think the government should have a star chart for businesses.

They could get a star every time they reduce their pollution. When they reach 5 stars then the government could give them some money to do more good things. At the moment they get money for doing the wrong thing.

We want a clean safe future, we want to see the animals that our parents have seen, we want to go and see the Antarctic where the penguins and polar bears live, we want to go snorkeling on the great barrier reef and we want to see the islands in the Pacific. If we make our government listen, if we make them understand that we should only be using sun and wind energy to power our country then maybe we will be able to see these things and maybe we will be able to show our children these things too.

Adults all around the world keep telling us children “you can do anything, you can achieve anything”. If this is true then why does the government believe we can’t have a 100% green future. Why don’t they stand up and say “lets just do it”, do they not believe in themselves?

We need more bike paths that are` safe for us kids, we need to take care of our forests, they take care of us, and all the animals that live in them! We need to protect the air we breathe.

I believe we are very clever, I believe we can do anything if we set our minds to it, lets show the world that Australia is the greenest country in the world. 

To an 11 year old it is simple, do the right thing, Australians are good and kind people we should be leading the way to protect our earth we only have one.

Thank you and please make our government listen, its important to all of us kids.

By India Jilly